Impact Investing, 2017

We are very pleased to announce our new initiative: in order to actively align our capital with our mission, the foundation has invested in Solarshare Community Solar Bonds and in the MaRS Catalyst Fund. Through these investments, we will not only continue to fulfill our foundation’s mandate of charitable grants, but also support important new work in clean energy and in innovative educational enterprises.

Abilene 600kW installation in Mississauga

Solarshare is a renewable energy co-operative corporation that finances large scale solar installations and sells the power through the Ontario government’s 20-year FIT program. Solarshare was started in 2010 and currently has 39 installations (creating 7 megawatts of installed capacity) and roughly $40 million in capitalization.

The MaRs Catalyst Fund is a project of the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing. It supports innovative Canadian enterprises that include social and environmental goals within their corporate strategies, and aim to address our society’s greatest needs in the area of energy and education. The MaRS Catalyst Fund supports these new firms with financial and management resources.